Bill was proposed by Alan Kelly today and has been passed with no opposition, so now goes onto the next stage.

The ICBI have also been in contact, they say:

Cheers for the support - what we need now is people to get in touch with their local TD to tell them how important this Bill is for both their local brewery and their local area - I've attached a list of all TDs, if you could maybe circulate to your members and ask them to get in touch it would be super. I believe they should all have clinic hours on Fridays and Saturdays if anyone wants to go for maximum impact!

irish_goat wrote:Excuse my ignorance of Dail proceedings but do bills normally pass the first stage without much hassle?

They don't 'pass', as such, and it's not a stage for discussion, but yes.In saying that, if a proposal isn't to the Government's liking, they'll usually say so at this point.Silence is a good sign, but still a long way to go.

The Government sounded a couple of warning notes to be dealt with in committee. One is the common sense assumption that every production brewery will be a visitor attraction and therefore must be compliant on health and safety etc. So getting a manufacturer's licence will require sign-off by a local court. The court can also revoke the licence if it's being abused, which would shut down the brewery completely, not simply ban visitors, which makes sense.

The more awkward bit is that the Government wants every visitor to do a tour before they can buy anything. It looks like they don't want people popping to the local brewery for a growler fill. The brewers and bill sponsors will need to have their arguments ready on that one.